Ka'au Crater Rim Hike
Ka’au Crater – November 6, 2011
To the summit and around the rim this time.
With Pu’u Ohulehule cancelled today, it was a very last minute decision to hike somewhere on Oahu. There was also a flash flood watch in effect for the weekend, but the skies were clear. It was a plan from the hip hike, which can turn out to be a disaster because planning is just as important as decision making when hiking.
What to do? I called Nate and Will to see if they wanted to do something. They did, but weren’t sure what to do. The plan was unplanned, but we decided to meet at the McDonald’s in Mililani. From there we would plan something. At 7a, that is what we did.
After I gave my options, we all decided to do Ka’au Crater. Nate and Will haven't done this hike before. The Ka’au Crater hike in my opinion, is one of the best hikes on the island. For me, climbing up the third waterfall is an unbelievable experience. It is an experience that seems dreamlike. There is no other way to describe it.
Everyone dropped their cars off at my moms, hopped in my car and off we headed to Waiomao Street in Palolo. We started the trailhead. You can read my other write up on the first two waterfalls here (Ka'au Crater) All I have to say is spectacular! For the other two guys, the “WOW” factor entered their mind when they first seen the first two waterfalls.
It was onto the third waterfall. The third waterfall is the one I’ve been telling you about when I mentioned dreamlike. You climb on the side of the waterfall and cross over it a few times. There are some different interpretations when describing this waterfall. Most people call it the third waterfall, while others break it down to 5 waterfalls because the water spills into a base. That is why some people call this hike The 7 Waterfalls of Palolo. I call it the third waterfall.
Though I did this hike a few months ago, I really wanted to summit, something I didn’t do last time. When we reached the base of the crater, we decided to tackle the summit. To get to the summit, you have to go up the southern end of the crater. It was steep. Very steep. It is super eroded, but there are long ropes to assist. The ridge is wind swept. Will was a little scared because the wind was blowing so hard and if you fall off the ridge, well that's it. Nate and I on the other hand, loved it. For those of you that don't know, windswept ridge means that there is no vegetation blocking the trail on the ridge, so the wind has no obstacles and just blows. We got to the windy summit. Although hazy, it was beautiful.
What we saw was, Olomana to the north, Olympus & Konahuanui to the west, and Lanipo to the east. Below us was Maunawili. We ate lunch at the summit, and then started the trek along the narrow north rim. At this point, the trail was overgrown. If you looked down to the right, there was a 2000 foot drop into Maunawili. Scary, sort of. Nate led us to the power lines. There was a trail heading down towards the west rim of Ka’au Crater. There was also a trail leading straight, which would lead to Olympus (got to do that one day).
While we circled the rim, there was a trail near the power line leading down a ridge. We decided to take that trail. The power line trail was initially overgrown, however after a while, it opened up. It was a wide trail, someone manicured it. So nice. However, after about 30 minutes, the trail ended and we made a decision to go down the mountain. In hindsight, that was a bad decision, We realized that while going down the mountain, after a while we turned around.
We eventually ended up back on the rim and found the critical junction that creates the Ka’au Crater loop.
Another hour of hiking from this point and we were done. Chalk this one up. I went to the gas station to buy an egg salad sandwich, was junk.
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